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Port Authority Agrees to Let Piers Be Used for Brooklyn Bridge Park

After years of battling over conflicting visions of the waterfront piers below Brooklyn Heights, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed yesterday to allow its prime property there to be developed as public parkland.

The Port Authority, which owns most of the 80 acres of property along the waterfront, had considered putting high-rise housing or parking lots on the land, which had once been the site of bustling piers. But yesterday, Robert E. Boyle, the Port Authority's executive director, said that while the piers along the waterfront still represented important areas of commerce, the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park was a better use for this property.

The fate of the property has been a continuing source of tension and concern in Brooklyn Heights and nearby neighborhoods, where residents say the land would be an ideal recreational area for their park-starved communities.

Some residents have pushed for a green space free of any commercial activity, saying that the state or city should pay for park upkeep. But state legislators say the park must be financially self-sustaining.

Joanne Witty, president of the two-year-old Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, said that for a self-sustaining park, there would need to be some compatible commercial development. That, she said, would most likely have to include some mix of restaurants and offices and a hotel or conference center.

The announcement that the land would be turned over to the development corporation came as the Pataki administration said that it would commit $500,000 for park development and planning. Park supporters hope that once the plans are finalized, much of the $100 million for construction will come from the state.

The Port Authority has pledged $5 million for pier maintenance this year, and Mr. Boyle said the authority was considering helping to pay for park construction.

''The Port Authority could take a very large financial part in this if we see plans for a self-sustaining park,'' he said.

Ms. Witty said final plans might also include some private housing, a concept that in the past has caused some local residents to worry about creating an undue sense of proprietorship among those who might move in. She added that she hoped the housing would bring year-round foot traffic to the park.

The development corporation will present final plans to the Port Authority in September, with park construction to begin in 2004.

Chris Ward, the Port Authority's chief of strategic planning and external affairs, said part of the authority's decision to support the park resulted from the public outcry against plans to sell the property to private developers.

''We've been working for this for 15 years,'' he said. ''Brooklyn has less park space per capita than any of the large cities in America, so there's a real need for open space.''

Mr. Watts said the waterfront had been a financial burden for the Port Authority since the 1980's, when the piers ceased to be used for shipping. Although the Port Authority has rented out warehouses on the property, it has wanted to get the piers into someone else's hands for years, Mr. Watts said.

Ms. Witty said that without the hope of high-occupancy development, the piers had become a liability for the Port Authority. But she said she also thought that the Port Authority realized that turning the piers into a park was the best alternative.

''This is the first time the Port Authority has said publicly that its first priority is a park,'' she said. ''They saw over and over that this was a community concern and that there was a strong, strong desire for a park.''

While tenants will be allowed to finish out their short-term leases on the property, the Port Authority has pledged to hold the land in public trust until park plans are complete.

At the signing today that finalized the agreement, at Fulton Ferry Landing just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, representatives of the governor's office also announced $500,000 in financing for a Sunset Park waterfront park and $100,000 to renovate the entry to the 69th Street pier and bike path.

Afterward, representatives of the Port Authority, the development corporation, the state and the borough came together to plant a symbolic tree, the first one of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, at the foot of Pier 1.

Later this month the development corporation will unveil a third round of park proposals to the public.